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Stop!

We are all so busy, aren't we? Tweets to send. To-do lists to compose and complete. Meetings to prepare for and attend.

It's a bit like living on an exercise bike. We're exhausted, but the view never changes. It's becoming tedious, a grind.

So hop off.

Erich Fromm wrote, “You have to stop in order to change direction.”

Stop doing the same things. Try something new and bold. Go for the extremes! Follow the advice of the great English portrait and fashion photographer Cecil Beaton:

“Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.”

You have the talent, the ability and the contacts. But do you have the vision and courage? Vision and courage are what leadership is all about: Making sure that everyone viscerally understands your purpose (and it should not be to produce and sell things. It should be to add value to people’s lives), and then to orchestrate, empower and inspire people to bring that purpose to life with daring and imaginative vision.

So stop and ask yourself, and your people: Are we asserting integrity of purpose in everything that we do? Does our desire to improve our customers’ lives shine through in each and every action we take?

If it doesn’t, stop! Change direction!

Now is not the time to “go along to get along.” Rather, it’s time to make waves. It’s time to think very practically about how to uniquely add value to people’s lives, and then to pursue it with daring!

Be an enemy of the ordinary, and be secure in the knowledge that the creatures of the commonplace will continue to sit passively and wait for things to change.

Don’t wait. Be bold. Boldness is scarce. And scarcity is what drives marketplace value.

Posted by Tom Asacker July 10, 2012
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